Martin is happy.
Brent Wodehouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Breakthrough brings 'Star
Trek' teleport a step closer
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 04 June 2007
Scientists have set a new record in sending information through thin air
using the revolutionary technology of quantum teleportation - although Mr
Spock may have to wait a little longer for a Scotty to beam him up with it.
A team of physicists has teleported data over a distance of 89 miles from
the Canary Island of La Palma to the neighbouring island of Tenerife,
which is 10 times further than the previous attempt at teleportation
through free space.
The scientists did it by exploiting the "spooky" and virtually
unfathomable field of quantum entanglement - when the state of matter
rather than matter itself is sent from one place to another. Tiny packets
or particles of light, photons, were used to teleport information between
telescopes on the two islands. The photons did it by quantum entanglement
and scientists hope it will form the basis of a way of sending encrypted
data.
The teleporters used in Star Trek are said to have been based on the idea
of quantum entanglement and the latest study demonstrates that elements of
the phenomenon could have a practical use in the real world.
However, quantum entanglement has so far been carried out only on the
simplest forms of matter and scientists believe that a fundamentally new
approach will be needed if it can ever be used for teleporting people or
even non-living objects.
Robert Ursin of the University of Vienna said the latest experiment in
quantum entanglement shows its potential as a means of communicating
sensitive information via satellites using quantum cryptography, that
could effectively deploy an uncrackable security code.
"We really wanted to show that this can be done in the real world and our
dream is to go into space and try it there. This was a feasibility study
funded by the European Space Agency," Dr Ursin said yesterday. "In
principle, such experiments may in future be used for teleporting
information between places, but our system is not capable of transporting
matter," he said.
"We think Star Trek is really very good science fiction but I'm afraid
teleporting people is not possible with current technology. But we could
use some scheme to teleport information."
Albert Einstein described quantum entanglement as "spooky action at a
distance" and it relies on the fact that two photons can be created in
such a way that they behave as a single object, even if they are separated
by large distances. In behaving in this way they are acting as a
teleportation machine because any changes to one causes similar changes to
the other. The way this is done is via a third photon, which is teleported
from the photon in the transmitting station to the photon in the receiver.
In the process, the third photon becomes entangled with the transmitting
photon and so carries its quantum information to the receiving photon,
which interacts with the third photon in such a way that it becomes
identical to it - hence the information is successfully transmitted.
The study is published in the journal Nature Physics.
"There is no reason Good can't triumph over Evil, if only angels will get
organized along the lines of the Mafia." -Kurt Vonnegut, "A Man Without A
Country"
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Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.
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